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The brothers working in the animation services of the General Curia travelled to Colombia to participate in the meeting of Ministers Provincial and Custodes of the Bolivarian Franciscan Conference.

To renew our mission and embrace our future as brothers and minors, the Animation Offices of the General Curia: Br. Darko Tepert, OFM,  The General Secretariat for Formation and Studies,  Br. Francisco Gómez, OFM, The General Secretariat for Missions and Evangelisation and Br. Jaime Campos, OFM, The Office for Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation (JPIC), have proposed to deepen our collaborative work both within the Curia and in the service we offer to the Entities of the Order.

For this reason, we participated in the meeting of the Bolivarian Franciscan Conference, which brought together the Ministers Provincial of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and the Custos of Venezuela. In addition, the Provincial Secretaries for Formation and Studies, for the Missions and Evangelisation and the JPIC Animators of the seven Franciscan entities that make up the Conference (CFB) joined in this meeting.

During the meeting, the action plans of each Animation Office were presented in line with the final document of the General Chapter 2021 and the Guidelines for the six years 2021-2027. We then took time to get to know the plans and projects of each Entity in the area of formation, evangelisation and JPIC. It was a valuable time of listening and learning about the opportunities and needs of each Entity.

During the second day of the meeting, work was done in groups by area to establish joint plans and programmes between the three areas of animation. Once the proposals of each region were set, they were shared to discern the form of collaboration between the Conference’s entities. Towards the end of the day, five joint proposals were established between the GSFS, GSME and JPIC to Alirio Urbina, OFM, President of the Bolivarian Franciscan Conference, so that they may be revised and approved in view of a Conference plan that includes the dimensions already mentioned in harmony with the directives of the current six-year period.